Talk:Contraband
Many stacks of The Daily Post are in room 5 of Fighting McDonaghs piles with boxes of contraband—The preceding unsigned comment was added by (talk • ) 07:27, March 11, 2013(UTC). Please remember to sign your posts with ~~~~. Stacks of Contraband : Why would Fontaine smuggle this stuff if there was no buyer for it. The difficulties/expense of smuggling goods would make anything have a premium price. Crosses could be made locally, literally tons of Bibles and newspapers (which can be shared, passed hand to hand/copied and arent consumed)- and all never delivered. Overused assets to make some point. Booze stolen from the Rapture Port Authority (that path supposedly shutdown in 1952 - so why is the booze still here, as booze seems to sell pretty well in Rapture). All the 'Seized' boxes elsewhere (incluuding 8 years later at Fontaine Futuristics) - probably not any tasty/useful contraband goodies left -- they would have be pilfered long past. Testxyz (talk) 16:34, December 9, 2013 (UTC) The Prohibition Effect : After Fontaine's Smuggling Ring was actually proven (subject to due process - which Ryan apparently believed in) and shut down, there would be all the evidence and documentation of customers and possibly bribes, etc... being found and investigated. How far did further legal actions then go, as many people in Rapture had knowingly bought the contraband (and sold it on to others - including to Ryan himself, if he ate at the Kashmir - for example). One of the issues with the 1920 Prohibition laws (in the US) were that they turned many people into 'scofflaws' and others into hypocrits and corrupted officials involved in enforcement. Theres no evidence (in-game) of the official prosecutions/repercussions going further than Fontaines organization. Its possible that it could be rationalized that once the actual act of the actual smuggling was done that the goods being available was just an opportunity and with relaxed 'ethics' that indirection was sufficient excuse for leniency. As usual in the game, there isnt a clear narrative and the evidence is vague. Death Penalty for Smuggling - When was this issued? - its not clear if it is before Fontaine dies or was in response to something like Atlas getting supplies and weapons by continued smuggling operations (we see the corpses of those crudely executed for Smuggling -- implying (?) it was while the Civil War was in progress). Likely was after Fontaine is dead, else why the 'Guns Blazing' commentaries if he was destined for a hangmans rope anyway?? Testxyz (talk) 09:47, January 10, 2014 (UTC) Contraband flows both ways... If people could be smuggled into Rapture, then they could be smuggled out - for the right price. And since the stuff being smuggled in has to be paid for somehow up 'on the surface', then besides the usual gems/gold/silver/art what Rapture-produced things might have to have been traded to the Surface to get all those expensively smuggled items? And if Fontaine could use the profits of his smuggling ring to set up whole companies, then there had to be ALOT of stuff traded in the outbound direction. Many of these items were outlawed due to conflict with the ideals of the city Were they?? Any proof of this statement? Or was this text merely an assumption ? We see the seized stuff from BS1 times, long after ANY smuggling is declared a crime (supposedly with the death penalty ?) If this statement can't be supported by proof, then it should be removed. The reason of competition with self-sufficiency text is OK. 06:17, March 8, 2015 (UTC) :What's with the html coding in your post? Anyway, the game shows mostly bibles and crucifixes when it comes to smuggled good in crates and There's Something in the Sea hinted to more than Christian items. I'd say it's a safe assumption that most of the smuggled goods were religious items. That doesn't keep from detailing the rest of the smuggled goods (BaS2 shows a lot of canned food, for example). Pauolo (talk) 07:03, March 9, 2015 (UTC) :No actually it shows lots of booze, newspapers, films and other things in crates (and theres talk of better tobacco and meat being smuggled in, cats, etc...) All smuggled and therefore illegal. :In any case Ryan himself said in BS2 Ryan_vs_Lamb:_Religious_Rights : :"Religious rights, Doctor? You are free to kneel before whatever tribal fetish you favor in the comfort of your own home." :State religions would be more what he was against (forced compliance and influence). Run of the mill 'altruism' - he seems to have tolerated quite a lot (why else didnt he instantly shut down Sofia Lambs 'free' art museum... and ban that ? Or Fontaine 'charities' ?) :Actually, crucifixes were a dumb choice (just easily recognizeable) as just about anyone can make one, so it need not be 'smuggled'. : 09:22, March 9, 2015 (UTC) : Some items listed as Contraband are odd Some of the things on the list are odd. Cocaine being one. Given that "anything goes" in Rapture there is zero reason for it to be contraband. I mean these people sell amphetamines (Ampheta Time!) openly. And let's not forget Plasmids. The only reason I can see that coke would be contraband is that it wasn't made/grown in Rapture. I wonder if the song "Beyond the Sea" belongs on this list as I think it shows up in the jukeboxes which means it was played openly. And unlike most things on the list you can copy a song while staying in Rapture. How? Just pick up a radio broadcast of the song. Or considering Elizabeth was in Rapture for some months, you could copy the song from a Tear. Also we don't see real evidence that weapons were being smuggled into Rapture. The fact is you wouldn't need to smuggle them. Anyone could own a weapon and weapon manufacturing was legal as well. Fontaine had Fontaine Hi Power Ammo and the Power to the People machines. And then there are the El Ammo Bandito machines. (As a note Ryan owned the company that manufactured the Circus of Values and El Ammo Bandito machines as stated in the quote from Pablo Navarro. But I don't see it listed under Ryan's businesses.) Also Ryan seems to have been making weapons as the Machine Gun used by Booker DeWitt in Burial at Sea - Episode 1 had the Ryan logo on it (It's based on the 1928 model Thompson but has clearly different features). Also the Pistol and Machine Guns use in BioShock do not match up with weapons in production on the surface at the time. The Pistol (resembling late Mark Wembleys) were slowly being phased out of service at the end of World War II and while a good gun was rather obsolete. Also the pistols have major features very different from the real weapon. In other words it was almost certainly made in Rapture. The Machine Guns seen are also certainly made in Rapture. The one used by the player is a 1921 model with a drum magazine which not many people used after WWII and the weapon had long been out of production. The Machine Gun used by Splicers seems to be something that looks a little like a Thompson but is something different and was never produced in real life. If weapons were being smuggled in from the surface you would be seeing things like AK 47's, Uzi's and Stens. (I actually examined what weapons Rapture should have http://solarmech.deviantart.com/art/A-List-of-Weapons-That-Should-Be-In-Rapture-664109703. Boy that went on a lot longer than I thought it would. sm --Solarmech (talk) 13:02, April 5, 2017 (UTC)